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Why do people who try to convince others to switch to metric focus so much on the conversions?
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this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Okay so lets use your numbers and buy s sanwitch and a drink from deli. Lets say the bread is $4,50 and the drink is $2,60.
So by conversion sanwich is $4 and ¢72 and the drink is $2 and ¢86 (86,4 is the accurate, but lets just round it)
So the total is $6 and ¢158. Then we need to convert it to the wholes and its $7 and ¢14.
In base hundred system the last conversion is just easier because you can do it just by moving a decimal. And i dont see any benefit in a system that makes that harder. And that is the reason why i think units like miles and feet are worse than metric.
Yes, in base 10 it does make the conversions easier, and we do use base 10. I don't think we should, but we do, but also the money conversion is something that is a relatively daily occurrence, not something that doesn't frequently happen like most distance conversions. While, yes, being 5 foot 8 inches is how we usually say people's heights, we do regularly just... Not convert. TVs are sold as 55 inch, not as 1 yard, 1 foot, and 7 inches, same as the average female height isn't 1 meter, 6 decimeters, 7 centimeters, and 5 millimeters in the US. It's 167.5cm.
You asked why people bring conversions up when talking about metric system and i tried to explain it. When you are used to a system where you can do it, its jarring when people try to say system where it is impossible is better.
Both systems work in everyday use just as well, but one system is superior in those situations where you need to calculate something little different from the norm.
Personal example from last year was when person who owns a road with me and few others wanted to make it wider for heavy machinery (he is fellling lot of trees and he will get better price if the trucks collecting the logs can drive closer). It was really easy for me to calculate how many m² i would loose field and forest area when the road is widened because even if the amount road is widened is in cm and the lenght of the road is in km those numbers mix well. I could easily calculate everything accurately, while in feet and miles i think i would just had to questimate it.